Transportation Insider: Violence on buses is unusual, COTA says

The Central Ohio Transit Authority has been getting a lot of attention lately for violent incidents on its buses, but the agency says those occurrences are rare.

Rick Rouan, The Columbus Dispatch

The Central Ohio Transit Authority has been getting a lot of attention lately for violent incidents on its buses, but the agency says those occurrences are rare.

This month alone, a bank-robbery suspect hopped onto a COTA bus, a woman was shot by someone firing outside a coach, and a 71-year-old man was punched in the face when he would not give up his cellphone.

The incidents are not connected and occurred on different routes, said spokesman Brian Hoyt. “ This wasn’t a COTA issue. This was a community issue.”

Last year, 64 assaults were reported on COTA buses. That’s fewer than three assaults for every 1 million rides the agency provided in 2012.

COTA has security-staff members (in uniform and in plainclothes) who monitor buses for crime, and the agency employs special-duty police officers as well, Hoyt said. No changes are planned.

Last year, 143 arrests were made on COTA buses.

• • •

Columbus patched 10,567 potholes during its annual blitz on city streets.

The Department of Public Service fills potholes reported to the city’s 311 phone service throughout the year, but it blankets Columbus with crews for two weeks each spring. From April 7 to April 21, crews patrolled the city in search of craters.

The number of patched potholes has dropped in recent years in part because the city has been more aggressive in resurfacing streets, officials say. Columbus is spending $32 million this year to resurface streets. In 2009, it spent $3 million, and that was federal stimulus dollars.

During the same two-week initiative last year, Columbus patched 12,646 potholes. In 2011 and 2010, it filled 20,593 and 34,555, respectively.

In all of 2011, the city patched 190,196 potholes compared with 130,397 last year. Spending on asphalt dropped to $175,578 last year from $319,991 in 2011.

• • •

The bike-sharing program that will launch in Columbus this summer has a name.

Ohio State University engineering professor Benjamin Coifman won a contest to name the program. His suggestion was “CoGo Bike Share.” About 200 entries were submitted.

“It struck me in a flash of brilliance,” Coifman deadpanned.

Starting in July, cyclists will have access to 300 bicycles spread across 30 stations, including hubs in German Village and the Short North. Stations will be concentrated inside I-670.

Subscriptions will run about $60 to $65 a year and about $5 for a daily pass that includes the first 30 minutes of the ride, said Alan McKnight, the director of Columbus Recreation and Parks.

The program will cost the city about $2 million in the first year, including the equipment purchase, McKnight said.

• • •

The Columbus Regional Airport Authority is spending $1.3 million on a pair of new snowplows.

That might sound like a lot of money, but these are super plows, even larger than the trucks that clear city streets.

The plows, which will keep Rickenbacker International Airport runways clean during winter storms, should help reduce the time it takes to clear snow by about half compared with the current equipment, which was bought in 1990.

The airport authority actually saved money by buying the plows through a cooperative with the city of Chicago. A separate bid would have cost an additional $175,000, said spokeswoman Angie Tabor.

About 90 percent of the cost will be covered by a federal grant; the authority will pay the rest.

Airports in New York and Detroit also have bought equipment through the Chicago cooperative, Tabor said.